Part One Hundred And One
As soon as court had adjourned, John asked Coope to summon Nikki Wade to his chambers. This was becoming a habit, he mused to himself as he waited for her, putting witnesses under the spotlight because they intrigued him, either professionally or sexually. Well, if Nikki Wade had interested him sexually, he wouldn't have got anywhere with her anyway, so he supposed that not having that issue at hand was probably a good thing. When Coope appeared and asked Nikki to accompany her to John's chambers, Yvonne quipped, "Make sure you keep your chastity belt on up there, won't you." Giving her a tired smile, Nikki said, "He wouldn't be able to work out the combination lock in a million years." "Do you want me to wait for you?" Helen asked. "Only I've got a patient to see at four-thirty." "No, you get off, I'll be fine," Nikki told her, wondering just why the judge wanted to see her.
When Nikki appeared and was shown in by Coope, John rose from behind his desk and offered her an encouraging smile. "This isn't a slap on the wrist for the admirable way you treated Brian Cantwell, I promise." "I did wonder," Nikki replied with a smile of her own. "As I have been warned that your punishments for such indiscretions are legendary." John laughed, and then offered her a cup of tea. "Nothing would be more welcome," Nikki said as she sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs. Asking Coope to bring them some tea, John sat down opposite her.
"So," Nikki asked when the tea had arrived. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" "You are the third witness in this infamous trial to thoroughly intrigue me," John was forced to admit. "Like a book that requires further study, am I?" Nikki asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's one way of putting it, yes," John replied dryly. "Brian Cantwell, in his usual, utterly transparent fashion, did his absolute best in trying to break your cool, yet you managed to remain thoroughly restrained throughout, even when he was calling your past out of the woodwork for all to examine at their will." "My past hasn't and never will be behind any woodwork, Judge," Nikki said a little regretfully. "I've been explaining myself since the age of sixteen, and that part of my life will probably never stop. I can't say it wasn't something I didn't expect from him." "To the likes of Brian Cantwell, you are something of an anomaly that he will never come to understand. You have undoubtedly killed a man, yet you now work as a wing governor for the prison service, in the very prison in which you were incarcerated. Do you ever find that this provides you with professional conflict of interest?" "Sure," Nikki said without a flicker. "Almost every day, especially when it concerns someone like Barbara, or the Julies, or anyone who's still there from the time I was there as an inmate. I'm the first con to turn screw that they know of, so they try every trick in the book to get me to go easy on them. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, though I do prefer to look on it as doing things differently, rather than showing favouritism towards those I know personally. Some of the other officers, such as Sylvia Hollamby for instance, loathe the fact that I am in authority above them. They hate it because the tables have been turned so successfully." "How she ever made it into the prison service, I'll never know," John observed in disgust. "She's much worse when you're on the cons' side of the wire, believe me," Nikki told him. "Knowing that I do have the necessary standing to sack her, does tend to keep her mildly under control." John smiled broadly. "The legal profession lost out somewhere along the line," He told her seriously. "You would have made a formidable judge." "Thank you," Nikki said just as seriously. "But I suspect I would often have become far too involved with the cases before me." "Who says I don't?" John asked, knowing that he also did that very thing far too often. "You do," Nikki agreed with him. "But you still somehow manage to keep enough distance to give whoever is before you a fair trial. That takes some incredible force of will if nothing else." "Perhaps," John agreed, touched by her compliment. "But it doesn't mean that I always get it right." "Does seducing witnesses come into that category?" Nikki asked without any hint of censure in her voice. "Has news of my indiscretion reached you too?" John asked a little uncomfortably. "Most things that reach Helen via the unprofessional route usually reach me too," Nikki informed him. "But we're all capable of it from time to time. How did me and Helen start out if it wasn't the biggest indiscretion in the book?" "Would you ever do for Helen what you did for your previous partner?" Nikki met his eyes thoughtfully for what seemed an age while she thought about this. "I don't know," She answered eventually. "That's not a question I can answer without being faced with the situation necessary to require such a decision." "I'm sorry," John said, knowing that the question had sprung out of curiosity, and realising that it was entirely inappropriate. "I allowed my curiosity to outweigh human decency." "No, you didn't," Nikki told him kindly. "You asked me something that you've been wanting to ask ever since the day you were first introduced to me, back in the middle of Lauren Atkins' trial. I don't blame you for wanting to know if I could do it again, because you're a member of the sentencing brethren, someone who is by virtue of your standing, forced to hand out mandatory life sentences for murder. You can't help wanting to know what made me capable of doing something so horrific, and you wouldn't be the only one. I probably ask myself that question every time I remember what happened." "Do you ever come up with an answer?" John asked her quietly, heartily relieved that he hadn't offended her. "Sometimes I put it down to wanting to protect the woman I loved, sometimes I feel as though it was a different person who killed Gossard, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that it was. All I've ever been able to come up with, is that if you love somebody enough, you'll do anything for them, even if it puts you at the highest risk or in the greatest pain. You might have learnt that already, or it might be something you have yet to learn, I don't know. I'd been nine years with Trish when Gossard started coming into the club as often as possible, frightening away half our clientele." "Nine years was the length of time I was married to George," John said contemplatively. "Well, there you are then," Nikki said with half a smile. "You do at least know what it's like to spend that amount of time with someone, whether happy or unhappy. I just hope that there aren't too many policemen around like Gossard, though I don't hold my breath."
"You don't have much faith in the establishment, do you," John said thoughtfully. "After seeing what some members of the legal profession are capable of, both through my own experiences and those of my inmates, do you blame me?" "Not in the slightest," John replied without any hesitation. "Far too many solicitors, barristers and judges can be leant on by just a nudge from the right sources, making justice a thing of fantasy. But if necessary when the time comes, I will try to give Barbara both fairness and decency, things that I believe are occasionally seriously lacking in a justice system that thinks it is perfect, just because it has long ago abandoned the death penalty. I can't claim to always do the right thing, but I do try."